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So what is happening?

The four key benefit cuts coming in to force on April 9 are:

Year three of the four-year cash freeze in working age benefits, affecting almost 11 million families. The 3% real terms cut in working age benefits this year is set to be by far the biggest of the four-year benefit freeze.

A two child limit for benefit claims, costing up to £2,780 for a family having a third child. This will affect 150,000 families.

Withdrawal of the family element of support for new tax credit and universal credit claims from families with children, costing up to £545 and affecting 400,000 families.

The rollout of Universal Credit, saving £200m this year due to lower entitlements than the existing benefit system for long term sick and working families in particular.

But There’s also some good news

More than 1.5 million workers will benefit from a 4.4 per cent pay rise when the National Living Wage rises from £7.50 to £7.83, on April 1.

What does it all mean?

David Finch, chief analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “The government is doing the right thing on pay with another big rise in the National Living Wage and ending the cap on public sector pay. But for many families the extra pay will be outweighed by the £2.5bn worth of benefit cuts being rolled out.

“With an average loss of £190, low and middle income families are set for the second biggest welfare squeeze since the crisis, at a time when pay growth remains muted and household incomes are already under strain.”

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What does the Government say?

Conservatives say Universal Credit is designed to help people into work by ensuring they are better off working than unemployed.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday, Chancellor Philip Hammond said it was still important to control spending.

He said: “We have a debt of 1.8 trillion pounds, 86.5% of our GDP. All the international organisations recognise that that is higher than a safe level and this isn’t some ideological issue, Andrew. It’s about making sure that we have the capacity to respond to any future shock to the economy.

“There will be economic cycles in the future. We need to be able to respond to them without taking our debt over a hundred percent of GDP.”